Conventionally, a technique for an intervention treatment in real time with observing images of a body of an object obtained by an X-ray imaging apparatus is known. For example, a device such as a catheter, a guide wire, a stent, a stent graft, and an artificial valve can be placed in a body of an object through a tube inserted in a blood vessel.
The replacement of an aortic valve is one of the treatments placing a device in a body. The replacement of an aortic valve is a treatment technique with placing an artificial valve in an aorta through a catheter inserted from a femoral artery. The replacement technique of an aortic valve using a catheter is called as the TAVR (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Replacement) or TAVI (Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Implantation).
It is essential for the replacement technique of an aortic valve to place an artificial valve at an appropriate position with a high accuracy. However, the aortic valve which is the placing target of the artificial valve is not depicted on X-ray fluoroscope images displayed in real time at the timing of putting the artificial valve by an X-ray imaging apparatus. Accordingly, various application softwares for assisting the replacement of an aortic valve are proposed.
For example, a software for drawing a line, to be the putting target of an artificial valve, on a previously imaged contrast image of blood vessels involving the aortic valve, and overlapping and indicating the line, showing the putting target of the artificial valve, with an X-ray fluoroscope image at the timing of putting the artificial valve has been offered commercially.